The present invention relates to patient monitoring. Although embodiments make specific reference to monitoring impedance and electrocardiogram signals with an adherent patch, the system methods and device described herein may be applicable to many applications in which physiological monitoring is used, for example physiological monitoring with implantable devices.
Patients are often treated for diseases and/or conditions associated with a compromised status of the patient, for example a compromised physiologic status. In some instances, a patient may report symptoms that require diagnosis to determine the underlying cause. For example, a patient may report fainting or dizziness that requires diagnosis, in which long term monitoring of the patient can provide useful information as to the physiologic status of the patient. In some instances a patient may have suffered a heart attack and require care and/or monitoring after release from the hospital. One example of a device to provide long term monitoring of a patient is the Holter monitor, or ambulatory electrocardiography device. In addition to measuring heart signals with electrocardiograms, known physiologic measurements include impedance measurements that can be used to assess the status of the patient.
Impedance measurements can be used to measure hydration and respiration of a patient. Long term impedance measurements used to determine patient hydration in relation to cardiac status represents one area where impedance measurements may be useful. Although current methodologies have been somewhat successful in measuring hydration, work in relation to embodiments of the present invention suggests that known methods and apparatus for monitoring patient hydration with impedance may be less than ideal. Some current devices may not accurately measure the impedance of the internal tissue of the patient, thereby making accurate hydration measurements more difficult. In some instances, the skin of the patient and/or coupling of electrodes to the skin may affect the impedance measurements. For example, environmental factors external to the patient may effect the measurements, for example when the patient showers. The electronics used to measure complex impedance signals of the patient may be somewhat larger than ideal and may not provide as much accuracy as would be ideal. Thus, devices that are worn by the patient may be somewhat uncomfortable, which may lead to patients not wearing the devices and not complying with direction from the health care provider, such that data collected may be less than ideal. As a compromise to reduce size and improve patient comfort, some devices to measure impedance may use circuitry that measures part of the tissue impedance without determining the resistance and reactance components of the complex impedance of the tissue.
Although implantable devices may be used in some instances, many of these devices can be invasive and/or costly, and may suffer at least some of the shortcomings of known wearable devices described above. In addition, implantable devices can be invasive and/or costly such that many patients cannot receive a therapeutic benefit. Although injectable devices may decrease invasiveness, the size requirements of injectable devices can place limitations on the circuitry and may limit the accuracy of such devices.
Therefore, a need exists for improved patient monitoring with impedance measurements. Ideally, such improved patient monitoring would avoid at least some of the shortcomings of the present methods and devices.